THE REGIMENT AT FORT WARREN
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Shortlyafter one o'clock, the transport drew alongside the pier at Fort Warren, and the batteries disembarked and formed in column, with the field music at the head. Then the regiment marched up from the pier, in through the main sallyport, and on to the parade, where line of masses was formed, arms were stacked and knapsacks unslung, preparatory to the work of getting the baggage up from the transport and settling down in quarters. And here the regiment was treated to an unwelcome surprise. The rain-proof wooden village which it had expected to find waiting for its occupancy had not yet come into existence; over by the main magazine stood two or three lonely booths, but the rest of the cantonment still remained piled in disjoined pieces on the lighters lying at the pier. To be sure, a delegation from the institution at Deer Island was engaged in giving a half-hearted imitation of a working detail, but itwas obvious to the most obtuse that the coming of night would find the task of village-building hardly begun—and this led the seven hundred men standing at ease behind the line of stacks on the soggy parade ground, and lunching in the cold, drizzling rain, on hardtack and canned beef, to make philosophical comments on the horrors of war in general, and of this war in particular.
But the time allowed for this innocent pastime was brief. Battery by battery, details were told off for pack-train duty, and in a very short time an endless chain of men circulated between the pier and the parade, filing empty-handed through the little postern in the northwestern bastion, and returning by way of the main sallyport, heavy laden with roof and wall sections. Even the wearied men in brown from Deer Island—who promptly had been christened by the batterymen the "Third Corps of Cadets"—seemed to catch the spirit of the occasion, and showed more animation in putting one foot before the other. And it was here that the regiment added to its repertoire a new version of an old song, with the merry refrain:
"They broke our backsA-luggin' shacks,In the regular army-O!"
"They broke our backsA-luggin' shacks,In the regular army-O!"
"They broke our backsA-luggin' shacks,In the regular army-O!"
"They broke our backs
A-luggin' shacks,
In the regular army-O!"
Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.15-INCH RODMANS, FORT WARREN.Gun-laying Practice on Outward-bound Steamship.
Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.15-INCH RODMANS, FORT WARREN.Gun-laying Practice on Outward-bound Steamship.
Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.15-INCH RODMANS, FORT WARREN.Gun-laying Practice on Outward-bound Steamship.
By night, there had been enough house-building accomplished for the sheltering of four batteries. The rest of the men stowed themselves in odd corners of the fort, large numbers bunking with their friends the regulars, and many picking out soft spots on the floor of the post recreation-room and gymnasium. As a matter of fact, it was four days before the entire command was settled in quarters—wet, windy days at that—lack of working tools for putting the houses together delaying the completion of the task. But when the village finally stood finished, it was a model village indeed—with a city hall, as exemplified by the office of the adjutant; a city hospital, in the shape of the surgeon's red cross shanty; eight straight, though narrow, streets, with six houses in each; and last, if far from least, a fire department, consisting of two hose-reels manned by detachments from "I" and "L" Batteries, with Captains Williamson and Whiting serving as the Board of Engineers. Later there was added abanquet hall, in the shape of a huge mess-tent, which loomed up grandly in fair weather, but tumbled ignominiously into the mud on the stormy days when it was most needed; but in the early days, officers and men took their rations as best they could, in the stuffy casemate of the gymnasium or amid the gloom of the "Dark Arch." And it may be said here that the messing problem was not a matter for easy solution, since the crowded condition of the fort made it impossible for the batteries to cook with their Buzzacot outfits, while the fixed kitchen appliances used by the regulars were inadequate for rationing a garrison of over nine hundred men. The question was finally settled, however, by employing a contractor to provide a general mess for the regiment, and this method was followed in the rationing of the command until it was broken up and sent to its various coast stations, late in May.
If the enlisted men were not luxuriously quartered in the early days at Fort Warren, the commissioned officers certainly were not much better off. The colonel, with his fourteen field and staff officers, went to housekeepingin three rooms in the second casemate to the eastward of the sallyport, while the first casemate to the westward found its eight rooms well populated with the thirty-five officers of the line. The room assigned to the lieutenant-colonel, the three majors, and the surgeon was a type of garrison luxury. It was lighted and aired by three narrow musketry loopholes, which afforded a somewhat monotonous view of the main ditch and sodded slope of the northern cover-face, while its contracted area was taken up in part by five cots, as many fieldchests, and a variable number of camp-stools. But it had an open grate, in which a coal fire was always glowing, and on the nights when the rain drove down upon the muddy parade, or the impenetrable fog swept over the ramparts, it was far from lacking in comfort. As a matter of fact, the enlisted men were extremely well provided for, since each house in the battery streets ultimately was equipped with a coal stove and with lamps in plenty, while volunteer ingenuity was not long in providing bunks, arm-racks, and cupboards. As a rule, there were about fifteen men, underthe proper non-commissioned officers, quartered in each shack, an allowance which gave ample space.
When the command reported at the fort, it was in excellent condition so far as concerned its health, and its officers purposed to keep it so. It is worth noting that on the day after its arrival, in spite of the fatigue, exposure, and excitement attendant upon its departure from home, there was not a single response at morning surgeon's call, which was nothing less than remarkable when it is recalled that here were over seven hundred and fifty men, fresh from office, shop, and factory, who had slept in damp uniforms, and in most uncomfortable quarters. This good record in the matter of health was maintained to the end of the regiment's term of service, and that it was so maintained is due to more than mere chance. Rigid rules, rigidly enforced, were laid down for camp sanitary matters, and minute inspections were daily made by both battalion and battery commanders, while the medical officers were alert and untiring in looking to the welfare of the men. The trying and unseasonable weather of late Apriland early May, together with the heavy details brought under exposure on guard and patrol duty, resulted in some sickness, but at no time was the hospital list unduly large. In its service of over six months there was but one death in the regiment, and this casualty occurred in the case of a man who contracted scarlet fever, and died while on mustering-out furlough. All through the summer the regiment improved in health and physique, and when finally it returned from the field it was in the pink of condition for further service. In justice to the officers of the command, this point cannot be unduly emphasized: the general condemnation of volunteer officers, so common since the close of the war, admits of certain sharply defined qualifications. While no estimate yet can be made of the dimensions of the pension bill for 1898, which finally will confront the country, it may be stated as an assured fact that the taxpayers need worry little over the item in the account chargeable to the First Massachusetts.